Life of King Grallons

Conan Meriadoch died, first king of Brittany Armoricane & was buried in the royal city of Legionense who was then succeeded by Grallons by before duke of the province of Cornwall, & was king in his place.

King Gralons

King Gralons

From which relates the story S. Ronan who once crossing the sea with the above said Conan Meriadoch came to Armorica & resided first in Legionense, then later in Cornwall in the great fort of Memet.

And said that the one Grallons who at the time of the said Ronan held the monarchy of Bretons, of his own free will willingly heard his preachings & that he spoke very attentively with religious & devout men: also said that he perseveringly loved righteousness & truth & that he was a very good listener of wards & widows, support of the oppressed , giving the natives their needs, unfailing operator of good works, pillar of the Churches, & undoubtedly a very good Christian.

And as the adversary of human nature knew through his astuteness that King Grallons always took advantage of the Ronan doctrine, he thought of stagnating his reputation, which had been spread by the provinces: and had them accused by a woman called Keban, of having stolen his daughter from him. . But the Keban fraud was apparently known in the presence of the king, and the daughter by Saint Ronan resurrected from death, who by the sin of the mother was estranged.

Grallons was also familiar with the Benoist Corentin, in legend from which it is contained that one day as Grallons was worked by the labor of hunting & by necessity forced to entertain & lodge in Ploemodiern, a place where Corentin remained solitary: the said Corentin who had nothing else to present to the king decided a portion of a fish that he fed in the fountain, which cooked portion was so abundant that the king and all his family were replenished with it.

And when the king knew this admirable fact, and saw the healthy and whole fish swimming by the fountain, he honored Saint Corentin more dearly, and gave him his palace in his royal hall named Kemper, with the woods and the earth around, at which place Corentin placed the episcopal see of the Corisopitenses, because shortly after it was consecrated their bishop by Saint Martin, and their great city of Ys.

Located near the great sea, if as they say, was at that time for the sins of the inhabitants submerged by the rising waters of this sea which passed their limits; from which submergence King Grallons who was then in this city, escaped miraculously, namely by the merit of Saint Guingalreus, from whom he is touched below. And it is said that its remains can still be seen on the shore of this sea which from the ancient name of the city is until now called Ys.

And of this holy man Guingalreus who saved Grallons from the said peril is found in the Chronicles & Legends from a very ancient abbey called Landevenec located in Cornwall, that a noble man named Fracanus, cousin of Cathonus, one of the kings of the island of Brittany, a very renowned man according to the century, came to this Armoricque, as well as the other Bretons of the said island with two Gemini children call Guéthenoc & Jacques & their mother who was nicknamed Blanche Trimamme, for what she had three breasts according to the number of her children, because the said Guéthenoc & Jacques had a full sister who did not is not calculated on the number of said children, because several authors are not accustomed to establishing in their writings the catalog of women.

If Fracanus applied himself with his family to a port called Brachet, and perusing and searching the Armorican land, found a large fund and ample territory, on all sides surrounded by bushes and forests, which was then [by] the said Fracanus its inventor called Goetlo, by the flooding of a river which flows there, which is properly called Blood in Gallic & in Breton Goet, & means Goetlo place of blood, where Fracanus lived, & there was born to him the aforementioned named Guingalreus, & who was a man of very marvelous abstinence, & of very holy & proven life.

And said the said story, that among these things the fame of him volitante by the region came to king Grallons, who then held the scepter of the western part of Gaulle, and he was that great kingdom subject, and if he was moderator of the Corisopitenses: why he was covetous to see him, and came fearful and inclined to adore him, asking what gifts he wanted from him, and that he had a great abundance of castles; & power of things, large space of land, & abundance of gold & silver, clothing, & other gifts: which when he had given them to him would remain free and clear, because no one has the power to tie the gifts of the prince.

All which things the said holy man Guingalreus refused, and raising the king by his right hand gave him a sermon of humility, exhorting him to flee the riches and the pomp of the changing century. By which sermon he was from then on more good-natured, and maintained righteousness and justice in his kingdom: until he contained the lubricity of this fluctuating world, and ascended to heaven. However, Grallons confided to Guingalreus the lands that a noble man of great power called Riocus gave him to found a hermitage, and since then amplified them with large possessions. And also founded another in Alethense, where Jacques brother of the said Guingalrus led a solitary life, according to what is found in the writings of this Church.

And since then these two hermitages have been erected as abbeys of the Order of Saint Benedict, of which the one which is located in Cornwall, as said above, is called Landevenec, and the other the Alethense Saint Jacut, from the name of the said Jacques who first inhabited it.

Thus vacated and was willing to serve God, and to honor the Church, and to endow its ministers, because in his days he had peace with the Gauls. And also in his time Great Britain and Armorican Brittany were concordantly united in union, like mother and daughter. But nevertheless he reigned holy, although he was brave and valiant in arms, and virtuously defended his kingdom against those who assailed him.

What does the said Chronicle of Landevenec report, that he enriched himself with the spoils which he took from the Normans: not from those of Neustria, for they were not yet so called: but from the Pyrates of Norway, who by sea came go down to Armoricque. Because according to the Chronicle, he prostrated this barbarian, powerful, and enemy people, and occupied and cut off five dukes from their people with their companies on the banks of the Loire river.